If the moderators know that a post isn’t in the most appropriate category, then they must know of a more appropriate one. So if they know of a more appropriate category for the post, why can’t they just move it to the more appropriate category? This would save a lot of time for everyone involved, and the same amount of effort for the moderators.
One of the most frustrating things about this forum is having your posts closed even though you were posting it in a category you felt appropriate, the mod says “nah, there’s a better category that this belongs in” but for some reason can’t tell you what the better one is.
If they feel they need to close a post because it doesn’t fit in category x and would be better in category y, why don’t they just move it to category y, or allow you to move it to category y?
You didn’t undrstand, perhaps I should have clarified. Each category has a pinned “About” topic which describes how the category should be used. If you check those out it will be clear what is and what isn’t allowed. You also have community editors at your service
This ignores the fact that users might purposefully post in categories they have access to and then expect their post to be moved to one where they can’t normally post. Something like this would put more strain on moderation rather than saving time.
Community Editors are here for that, for the most part.
If there is a more appropriate category your post can fit under, a Community Editor might typically move it over before it’s escalated for moderator attention. If your post does not fit into a category or a community volunteer does not get to it first, then it gets taken down.
This is why you should read category guidelines rather than picking a category at random without understanding your options. Additionally, you can forward contact to a community volunteer for help determining where a post may best fit under. There’s clear mention of miscategorising in the rules yielding feedback. There’s no real excuse for not knowing.
In most recent cases of threads having wrong categorisation, they’ve fallen under one of three issues:
The post better belongs in Lounge, which the poster does not have access to.
The post better belongs in Platform Feedback. We do not move posts here intentionally.
The post does not belong on the Developer Forum. This is a valid reason for removal.
Regarding point 2: we do not move threads to Platform Feedback. As staff are actively viewing this category for feature ideas and bug reports to process, it’s important to be able to follow a process and include as much information regarding the circumstances as possible. Therefore, as most posts do not follow the expectations, we cannot move them. It also generates two more problems:
Members understand that they can cheese their way into the category by deliberately ignoring the rules and miscategorising posts, expecting it to be moved over.
This comes back to the other discussion, “The forum is moderated too heavily”, and a response there regarding things like this turning the DevForum into an unusable mess.
More work for moderation. For community volunteers like myself who are very proactive in ensuring categories and titles are used appropriately, more work (albeit non-obligatory, so this is trivial and actually doesn’t matter at all).
We know where your post better belongs, but it’s not helping anyone to baby you through the processes and allow you to ignore the rules, which is what the feedback message is for - to highlight the problem and give you a chance to follow up for more information or discussion on the action moderation took with your post. It’s better to ensure that you’re actually following the rules than taking a convenience measure which ignores the rules and implicitly enables this kind of mistreatment of the forum.
It would be a big help if you played your part in keeping the forum clean and resourceful.
I had the same idea some weeks ago, but no, it will not be helpful. When your post gets flagged you receive a “Feedback message” for the rule you are breaking, so nothing stops you to copy your post and move it to the correct one.
Like the post above this says ↑↑↑ most people just wouldn’t care if their posts are moved and will continue posting wrong without actually reading the rules
@Community_Editors, or @Community_Sages move the topics to a more appropriate, if that topic, fits a category provided by the Developer Forum.
If your post was deleted it’s most likely that it didn’t fit a category or that certain topic was already posted in the proper category, but you didn’t know. If you feel your post was deleted but there’s a proper category you could message the @moderators, normally they send you messages if they deleted your post, and most likely it broke a rule about posting here in the Developer Forum.
Keep in mind they’re doing this to make this Forum professional, as this forum is used by Developers, and this forum is in no way, should be presented as some type of social media forum, or kid’s forum.
When your topic gets flagged or closed, there are messages that do give you feedback on what the channel you misused is used for, and what the appropriate category it is. There are multiple instructions at the top when you start to use that channel.
Also remember, if you don’t know where to post it, the Community Editors are willing to help you.
If the post was just moved like that, will people ever learn to post it in correct category? You are just trying to increase the workload. If their topic gets closed and all at least once, then only they learn it. This will prevent many off-topic discussions.
Instead Of Closing Posts For Being In The Wrong Category, Just Move Them To The Right One
Instead Of Posting In the Wrong Category, Just Read The Rules Or Ask A Community Editor
Plus if your suggestion was applied it would increase the work of the moderators even more than it is now. It would also encourage members on not following the rules, they are not babies, they need to learn to read the rules and properly follow them. It is not hard.
And when the post is deleted you receive a message from the moderator on why it was removed. This is enough to let the person learn from their mistakes.
This suggestion, if added would actually be exploited by the members by deliberately posting in the wrong category so it gets moved to the correct one (where they cannot post).
